European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 16, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes world wednesday december 16, 1992 Yeltsin sidesteps Battle by dropping Reform Leader by the Washington Post Moscow a russian president Boris n. Yeltsin in a stunning reversal has sacrificed reformist acting prime minister Yegor t. Gaidar and allowed the appointment instead of a centrist industrialist whose commitment to economic Reform is unclear. Apparently unwilling to risk yet another politically damaging Battle with the conservative russian Congress of Peoples deputies Yeltsin proposed Viktor Chernomyrdin 54, As prime minister on monday. The Congress approved Chernomyrdin by a vote of 721 to 172. Gaidar 36, an econ Chernomyrdin Mist who has plotted russians Radical free Market reforms for the last year said after the vote that he will resign from the government immediately. A i do not want to interfere with Chernomyrdin a efforts to carry out the policies he deems necessary a Gaidar said looking weary from two weeks of Battle with his opponents. The shake up placed the process and Speed of russians economic Reform in doubt at least for the Short term. Gaidar has come to symbolize russians commitment to a fast transition to a free Market both in Moscow and in the West. Chernomyrdin with his lifetime of experience in the soviet state controlled Economy and his backing by conservatives is Likely to be More cautious. It is expected that most members of Gaidar steam will also quit although Gaidar said he will urge them to stay on. It also is Likely that foreign minister Andrei v. Kozarev a favorite target for nationalists and conservatives will be replaced in a Cabinet reshuffle. Yeltsin appeared to have been significantly weakened by the Congress which concluded a Stormy two week session monday. For the first time since the failed hard line coup in August 1991, which made him the country a unrivalled Leader he appeared unable to out Man Euver his congressional adversaries. A this has been a disastrous session for us and for Yeltsin a one democratic legislator said. A a it a unclear whether he will be Able to  speaker Ruslan Kha Bulatov Yeltsin a chief rival in the Congress was More Blunt a Congress has established itself As the supreme Organ of state  japanese say american band stole More than the show t Okyo up a More than a Hundred members of a . University marching band stole thousands of dollars of electronic equipment on a shoplifting spree in t Okyo police said tuesday. Quot about 120 members of Texas Southern University a marching band made off last week with $21,800 in compact disc players min televisions watches and electric razors from 18 different shops before they were caught a police spokesman said. T he students were in Japan from dec. 3 to dec. 7 to perform at the halftime show of a football game Between the University of Nebraska and Kansas state University. T he students stopped in the Aki Habara electronic goods shopping District on their Way to the Airport to catch a flight to the United slates. They were accompanied on the shopping trip by six school officials including the vice president of the Houston University. The police spokesman said the band members arrived in Aki Habara in three buses around 10 a.m., just after the shops opened. They scattered to a dozen shops and began pilfering electronic items from shelves and stuffing them into paper bags. Terms noticed them and chased the students who fled into their buses parked near the shops. A a we received Calls from several different shops almost at the same time around 10 40 a.m.,�?� the spokesman said. One angry shopkeeper told the Kyodo news service a the students were videotaping our assistants As they chased them to their buses. They showed no repentance a they acted like it was some kind of  police officers arrived at the scene and persuaded the students to return the stolen items by telling them that the electronics a a done to function in the United states because of different  the students returned about $18,500 Worth of the goods but shopkeepers said they were still Short about $3,225, the police spokesman said. The japanese publicity agent who invited the band talked with police and agreed to compensate the shops if the police allowed the band members to catch their scheduled 3 30 flight he said. Hideaki Niwa spokesman for coca cola Japan co., the football games sponsor said he was a very  Niwa said he first heard of the incident tuesday More than a week after the students allegedly lifted the goods. 3 Neo nazis get prison terms in beating of German leftists Ohrlin apr a court has convicted three Neo nazis in a Savage assault on leftists in which one person was fatally bludgeoned and eight others were seriously injured. All three received prison terms for the May attack in the Eastern German City of Magdeburg. Two other skinheads were placed on probation for their part in the attack. Meanwhile vandals scrawled swastikas on the Berlin grave of Walter Rathenau a German jew killed by rightists in 1922 while serving As foreign minister in the Weimar Republic. Critics of the present Day German government often compare the nation to the weak divided Weimar democracy which collapsed in the face of extremist activity and Adolf hitlers Rise to Power. I hey say too Little has been done to Stop a two year escalation of Neo nazi violence a mostly against foreigners and jewish memorials a and leftist counterattacks. The five skinheads convicted monday were among 60 Neo nazis who stormed a Magdeburg restaurant on May 9 and attacked Young leftists having a birthday party. The rightists attacked their victims with baseball bats leaving some with massive head injuries. Torsten Lamprecht 23, was killed. The youth crimes division of Magdeburg District court convicted a 2l-year-old Man identified Only As Frank f., of attempted murder and sentenced him to six years in prison. Two other assailants were sentenced to two years and six months in prison on related charges and two others were placed on two years probation. Police in Berlin said they had no suspects in the vandalism of the Rathenau Gravestone which was damaged and covered w Ith anti semitic slogans. Rathenau was an influential industrialist who oversaw German reconstruction after world War i before becoming foreign  extremists threaten to attack tourists in Cairo from wire reports syut Egypt a Muslim extremists say they will attack foreign tourists and embassies in Cairo unless the government Calls off its crackdown on fundamentalists police said monday. Leaflets distributed by extremists threatened to bring the attacks into the capital unless the crackdown ends said a police official who spoke on condition of  copter shot Down Moscow a Twenty of the 39 people killed when a russian military helicopter crashed in Georgia were children officials said tuesday. The helicopter was hit by a surface to air missile monday while evacuating refugees from Georgia a breakaway Abkhazia Region. It was carrying 20 children Ages 3 to 11, along with 16 women and three Crew members the abkhazian defense ministry said.2 killed by pirates Kuala Bumpur Malaysia a British Captain and his filipino first mate were killed in a pirate attack on their freighter off Indonesia shipping officials said monday. Still sketchy reports said the pirates first encountered and shot capt. John Bashforth 50. They then killed Teodolfo Pere a in his Cabin before fleeing apparently without stealing  billionaire Dies Saint John new Brunswick a Kenneth Colin  Irving one of the worlds richest men died sunday of unspecified causes. He was 93. In 1988, Forbes Magazine identified the Ultra secretive Canadian As the worlds third richest Man estimating his assets at Between $3 billion and $7 billion. This year Forbes called the irvings the 18th-richest family in the world. The Irving Industrial group run in recent years by Irving a three sons represents North americans biggest private  bombs kill seven Bogota Colombia a car bombs exploded in Medellin and Opal on monday night killing seven people and wounding 11, the run radio network said. A taxi rigged with 220 pounds of dynamite exploded in Oil Rich Opal 120 Miles Northeast of Bogota an  report said. It said the taxis three occupants were killed As Well As the Driver of a passing car and a pedestrian. At least eight people were reported wounded. At least two people were killed and three wounded when another car bomb exploded in a residential Section of Medellin 120 Miles Northwest of Bogota run reported. The bomb was evident ally intended for a police patrol but killed civilians instead the report said. Police did not say who was responsible for the Medellin blast. But in recent months the Medellin cocaine Cartel led by fugitive drug Boss Pablo Escobar is said to have ordered the killings of More than 50 police officers in the  civil servants strike Madrid Spain a More than 1.5 million civil servants began a 24-hour nationwide strike tuesday in a wage dispute a Union spokeswoman said. It was the second massive walkout in less than a month. The strike affected ministries City councils hospitals postal services and schools said a general workers Union spokeswoman who declined to be identified. Between 75 percent and 80 percent of 8pain s estimated 2 million civil servants participated she said. A similar strike was called by the general workers Union and two other unions nov 26 to protest government proposals to freeze civil servants wages in 1993. I he socialist government of prime minister Khuc Gonzalez Marquez has offered a non negotiable 3.5-percent raise which has been rejected by unions